Effect of music listening on P300 event-related potential in patients with schizophrenia: A pilot study

Reduced amplitude and increased latency of P300 auditory event-related potential (ERP) in patients with schizophrenia (SZ) indicate impairment in attention. Overall arousal level can determine the amount of processing capacity required for attention allocation. Music evokes strong emotions and regulates arousability. Music has been used to modulate P300, especially in normals. This exploratory study examined the effect of music listening on the amplitude and latency of P300 in SZ patients. EEG/ERP was recorded (32-channels) while SZ patients (n = 20; 18-45 years) performed an auditory oddball P300 task after the eyes-closed rest condition (Condition-A) and ten-minute music listening condition (Condition-B) as per the complete counterbalancing design (AB-BA). Patients listened to the researcher chosen, instrumental presentation of raag-Bhoopali in the North-Indian-Classical-Music, for ten-minutes. All patients rated the music excerpt as a relaxing and positively valenced. A significant increase in accuracy score and reaction time during the oddball task after music listening was noted. There was an increase in amplitude at TP7. A trend of increased amplitude was noted across all electrodes in the music condition compared to the rest condition. Mean amplitude in an apriori defined time window of interest (250 to 750 ms) showed significant changes in the frontal and central electrode sites. Power spectral analysis indicated a slight increase in frontal and central alpha and theta activity during music listening. However, this was not statistically significant. Findings add further impetus to examine the effect of music in chronic psychiatric conditions. Need for systematic studies on a larger cohort is underscored.